


let the years we're here be kind, be kind

by JayQueenofHugs (bifangirl)



Series: YDYD Drabbles [4]
Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Achieveland AU, Alternate Universe - Minecraft, Canonical Character Death, F/M, Gen, Immortality, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Past Character Death, YDYD AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-04
Updated: 2019-04-04
Packaged: 2020-01-04 22:04:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18352595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bifangirl/pseuds/JayQueenofHugs
Summary: They’ve all died before, but they’ve never stayed dead for long. A glimpse into the afterlife makes them glad for their immortality.





	let the years we're here be kind, be kind

**Author's Note:**

> The final of my YDYD drabbles  
> As always, spoilers for YDYD s1 and s2 e1-3  
> Thank you to everyone who's been reading this series and once again, thank you to Ella_May_Lowell  
> Title is from North by Sleeping At Last

_ They’ve all died before, but they’ve never stayed dead for long. A glimpse into the afterlife makes them glad for their immortality. _

 

***

 

Michael’s dreams are so often divided that he can’t comprehend what’s happening. Two realities play through his head at once and it almost drives him mad.

 

All at once he feels both the pain of dying and the emptiness of surviving his friends. He’s impaled by a trident while watching his wife be killed by a zombie. They’re two different types of pain, but they both feel like a stab to the heart. He’s a ghost in one world and watching Gavin die in another. He’s brought back to life on an island while his friends murder each other in a field.

 

Eventually, he exists in one single reality. He’s growing old while his friends decompose in the ground. He’s building a kingdom while they burn in Hell. When he joins them, they’ve built more than he ever could. Lindsay’s moved on and everyone is much more alive than the one who survived longest.

 

He wakes up to see Lindsay beside him, to their house, to  _ his _ life. He’s relieved it wasn’t real.

 

_ (His dreams both reaffirm why he hates immortality and why he’s glad for it.) _

 

***

 

Gavin knows what dying feels like. After all, he had to discover his immortality somehow. Yet somehow it doesn’t compare to how it feels in dreams. At some point in his life, he must have gone numb to the pain.

 

He dies two different ways in two different dreams, yet they’re incredibly similar. In one version, he’s shot by Ryan and he falls off his platform. In the other, he’s shot by a skeleton and falls out of the waterfall.

 

Somehow, he always feels panicked whenever he’s in the air. He supposes it would be natural instinct for a mortal  _ (but he’s immortal, isn’t he?) _ . There’s always that split second of fear before his dream-death, there’s always more pain than he expects.

 

His dreams continue for a long time after that and he watches the world through the eyes of a ghost. He watches as his friends die in each reality, as the world slowly becomes devoid of life. He never wants to see it happen again.

 

He often wakes up feeling like he’s been shot, feeling the pain of hitting the ground. He always needs to remind himself that he’s immortal, that he can’t die, that he went numb to the pain a long time ago.

 

_ (The afterlife is different than he expected. He’s glad he’ll never have to experience it in the real world.) _

 

***

 

Ryan’s experienced death before, they all have, but it’s not quite the same if you’re immortal. He finds that out from his nightmares. Often, he finds himself sleeping restlessly, tormented by what-ifs, alternate timelines.   
  
Sometimes he’s in a small house in a hill, a tree on the roof. All his friends are there except for Matt. Lindsay dies, then  _ he _ kills  _ Gavin _ . It devolves into chaos, a strange madness fills his mind. He vaguely hears Alfredo, Geoff, and Jack die. He returns to his home  _ (but that’s not his home) _ to find Jeremy gone mad with grief. He is shot by an arrow and falls to his death. It’s different than what he’s used to.   
  
The dream always shifts there. He’s now on an island, Matt replacing Lindsay. Michael is killed by an unknown creature, Matt dies saving him, Gavin dies a few days later. He finds an ancient text and learns about resurrections  _ (is this why he’s immortal?) _ . Geoff dies moments before the first ritual and Michael comes back part zombie. He dies not long after and he glimpses the afterlife before he comes back  _ different. _ He’s part enderman and he can’t understand why.

 

_ (He’s glad he doesn’t turn into a monster hybrid whenever he respawns. He’s also glad he can’t kill his friends.) _

 

***

 

Jeremy’s died many different ways throughout his life. Many of those ways were from stupid dares or idiotic decisions, but none of them were terrible after the first few. Dreams, however, are somehow more vivid than reality.

 

Sometimes he finds himself drowning, struggling to reach the surface despite it being so  _ close _ . He can see the sky but the water pulls him down as though something has grabbed his leg and is dragging him to the bottom of the ocean. He feels his lungs give out, but his brain tries to fight the dream.  _ (He’s immortal, he’s not going to stay dead.) _

 

Other times he finds himself jumping off a tall tower for unknown reasons. He vaguely remembers chasing Trevor up there after killing Ryan, but he brushes that memory to the side.  _ (Ryan can’t die either.) _ He hits the ground after a few seconds, but those seconds are enough to give him a fear of heights.

 

He wakes up and tells himself it wasn’t real, but he can’t shake off the feeling of dying as a mortal. He can’t shake off the creeping dread and doubt that fills his brain.

  
_ (Drowning isn’t fun and neither is falling to his death. He can’t say he’s experienced either in that way before.) _   
  


***

 

Jack has avoided people for a good reason. He never wants to watch someone die while his life continues forever. When he met Geoff and the others, he was relieved. Finally, someone he could grow close to after years of isolation. Of course, that’s when the doubts began. All the what-ifs running through his brain sparked nightmares he’s not sure he could ever forget.

 

Every time, he’s forced to watch the people around him die. Sometimes it’s Michael who dies first, sometimes it’s Lindsay. Sometimes they come back, but they aren’t the same. Sometimes, he dies as well. Every night becomes a horrible experience for him as he wonders if immortality ever fades.

 

He often wakes up in tears, reminded of why he isolated himself for such a long time. He tries to quell the doubts in his mind, to forget about the what-ifs. The dreams are always on his mind, no matter how much he tries to forget them. He’s glad he isn’t in his dream world, though. He doesn’t want to be surrounded by people who could waste away at any moment.

 

_ (He’s glad they’re all immortal. He’s glad he doesn’t have to mourn the deaths of his friends.) _

 

***

 

Geoff has witnessed much death throughout his lifetime. He’s glad he met more immortals because he’s sick of watching his friends die. Of course, that’s when the nightmares start.

 

They aren’t too bad when they first start, they’re dreams of calm homes and peaceful island vacations. At least, that’s what they are the first few nights. After a week, they turn into nightmares.

 

The tree on top of the calm home turns into a memorial for Lindsay after she is killed by a zombie. The jungle turns into a death trap after Ryan kills Gavin. The wilderness is danger after Alfredo is blown up. The riverbank is his own doom. The ocean kills Michael and Matt. The ravine kills him and Gavin.

 

He wakes with a start every time he dies. He can still hear his friends dying and he remembers everyone he’s had to leave behind in his long life.

 

_ (He hopes they’re actually immortal, he hopes it doesn’t wear off.) _

 

***

 

Trevor’s never been bothered by graveyards. After all, there was nothing to be afraid of if you couldn’t die. Despite this, he avoids them so as to be respectful to the fallen.  _ (And to avoid angering the dead with his immortality.) _ He’s never stayed long enough in one place to outlive anyone, he always left before anyone got suspicious.

 

He meets his friends and not much changes until the dreams start. The nightmares are a jumbled mess, yet somehow he manages to piece together some coherent stories. Somewhere, there is an island he’s never seen before. And on this island, he has to watch some of his  _ (immortal) _ friends die. Michael, Matt, Gavin, Geoff, and Ryan all get gravestones next to each other, close to the house.

 

There’s another place, too. A house in a field where tragedy strikes. Lindsay gets the tree as her memorial. Gavin, Alfredo, Geoff, Jack, and Ryan all need gravestones. He creates a graveyard and buries his  _ (supposedly immortal) _ friends, numb to the entire process. He dies not long later and realizes the graveyard needs more room for him.  _ (But he’s immortal, he can’t die.) _

 

Somewhere in his dreams, there are turtles he buried as well.

 

He wakes up and looks outside his house, making sure there’s no graves near him.

 

_ (He’s never had to bury his friends before and all of a sudden he hates graveyards.) _

 

***

 

Nightmares come with immortality, as Alfredo discovers very quickly. His dreams are always changing depending on where he is and who he’s with. It takes him far too long to figure out he can’t have mortal friends. After all, they don’t last long. He expects the dreams to stop after he meets the others, but they just get worse.

 

In his dreams, he’s always far more innocent and carefree - not someone who has outlived countless numbers of friends. He’s someone who’s discovering the world for the first time, playing around in a new land. He’s creating buttons, swimming through the ocean, staring at polar bears, building a hideout. And then he’s watching his friends die, mourning them and the things they miss out on.  _ (He thinks he dies as well but he isn’t sure.) _

 

He never wakes up worried, though. He’s grown used to the dreams.

 

_ (He’s learned to shrug off the nightmares and live in the moment.) _

 

***

 

Lindsay realizes she might not be the most careful person in the world, but at least she can’t die. After all, she doesn’t want her dreams to become reality. Sure, there’s a cozy house by a hill, a farm, Alfredo’s button. But there’s also the tragedy hidden just behind the illusion of peace.

 

She’s the first to die, but she’s not surprised. No one is. The tree on top of the house is named after her, but there’s not much mourning. Their life continues and they survive, even though Ryan gets lost along the way.

 

Some of them meet up in the forest and Gavin dies. Everyone mourns him but very few mourned her.  _ (At least she got a memorial.) _ It doesn’t take long for the others to die as well. Except for her husband, he lives for many years afterwards. Sometimes she wonders if he misses any of them. Eventually, she moves on.

 

When he does eventually join them, she doesn’t care anymore.

 

She wakes up with a start, looking over at Michael. She vows that nothing like that will ever happen, there will be no Gary in the waking world.

 

_ (The other her was foolish and unlucky. She refuses to end up like that.) _

 

***

 

Matt knows he’s immortal, he’s known for a while. So why do his dreams try to fight him on that? He’s haunted by nightmares, the illusion of happiness from the island home always giving way to horror and death. That island brings nothing but grief in his dreams, a deadly ravine surrounded by the ocean with very little resources.

 

He knows people died there, he watches it happen practically every night. He sees Michael die, impaled by tridents while trying to protect the others. He himself dies and it’s unlike any of his recent deaths.  _ (He guesses he’s gotten numb, unable to feel pain any more.) _ Dream him always dies for Ryan, saving him from the thing that killed Michael.

  
His dreams sometimes end with his death, but sometimes they continue through the afterlife. He’s a ghost, watching Gavin and Geoff die, watching the adventures of the Battle Buddies.  _ (Lindsay’s never in his dreams, it confuses him.) _ He guides Ryan to gold, tries to warn him about a creeper  _ (Ryan sees it anyways) _ . He watches Alfredo discover new land, watches Michael be resurrected. He watches Ryan die despite his sacrifice and watches his resurrection as well.

 

Sometimes he wakes up feeling like he’s floating, other times he wakes up feeling like he just got impaled. He always has to remind himself that he’s immortal, that he’s in Achievement Cove, that he’s still  _ alive _ .

  
_ (So if he could die, he’d die for one of his friends? Sounds about right.) _

**Author's Note:**

> Once again, thank you all for reading and I hoped you enjoyed it!


End file.
